NAGA CITY – The bill that creates a new district in Camarines Sur, increasing to five the existing four districts in the province, has been approved by the Senate and the House, a lawmaker here has said.Representative Luis R. Villafuerte, Camarines Sur second district representative, said the bill that creates an additional district, which would be carved out from the 10-town first district here, had been passed in the House without opposition. Villafuerte said the Senate version had been met with opposition but when it was submitted for voting, 15 senators voted in its favor. “That’s more than the majority of the senators,” he added. He said he expected the final approval of Camarines Sur’s additional congressional district in September, barely two months before the start of the filing of candidacies for elective positions. Arroyo district The first district of Camarines Sur is represented in the House by presidential son Rep. Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo. Arroyo built a house in Potot, Libmanan town in 2006 to establish residence and qualify in the congressional race. His origin is Pampanga. Formerly the political turf of former congressman and now Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr., whose hometown is the neighboring Ragay, the first district of Camarines Sur has been handed to Arroyo after Andaya was appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to head the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) four years ago. But critics here see political accommodation for Andaya after his term as budget secretary ends when Ms Arroyo bows out of office in 2010. With his political turf already occupied by Dato Arroyo, the additional district would secure him a seat in the House next year. Collective decision In an earlier interview with Andaya, he distanced himself from the congressional initiative to add one more district. “It will be the decision of many people not a single person,” he said. In the House, the bill was authored and sponsored by Villafuerte. Now a self-proclaimed independent with no party affiliation, Villafuerte is a staunch Arroyo supporter who served as president of the Kabalikat ng Mamamayan Pilipino (Kampi) until he resigned a week before the merger of Kampi and Lakas-NUCD. The first district of Camarines Sur is composed of the towns of Libmanan (Dato’s adopted town, which is the biggest in terms of area and population), Pasacao, Pamplona, San Fernando and Minalabac in the southwest part of the province. The northeast area covers the coastal town of Cabusao and the railroad towns of Sipocot, Lupi, Ragay (Andaya’s hometown) and Del Gallego along the Quirino Highway going to Quezon province. The House and Senate bills will put Libmanan (Arroyo’s adopted residence) and Ragay (Andaya’s hometown) in separate districts. Juan Escandor Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon | 
